July 1, 2013

 

We're currently working in Celestun. I stepped away from the team to come to an internet cafe because I needed to download a driver, and I figured I should probably give you all another quick update. We used to have internet in our hotel in Celestun, but I'm not sure if we have it available to us this year. I just sent you all an email that I wrote the first night that we arrived. I'm going to try to keep this brief so I can get back to our team as soon as possible.

 

We had our first day of VBS yesterday after the morning service as the church Servios de Jesus. We had about 60 kids come out and are hoping for many many more today. It's always so great to see all the kids' faces again and to see how many of them are so excited to see us, and we hope to turn that excitement away from us and toward Christ in the few days that we have here. One huge highlight from last night was when we presented our body worship for How He Loves at the evening worship service. As our team was debriefing afterwards, many of our team members agreed that it was one of the most powerful times of body worship that we've had, because all of our team members were genuinely worshipping--singing our hearts out as we worshipped with our motions. The pastor who preached at that service also was sharing from 2 timothy 4:1-8. He challenged us with an image of a baseball game. There are only about 20 players who actually play in the game and thousands of people in the stands spectating. He asked how many of us are living like those spectators instead of being in the thick of the fights. I hope that all of us out here in a field and all of our senders and supporters back at home will not be caught sitting in the stands watching as God's work is being done. Rather, let's all jump into the thick of the fight even though it will be more tiring and difficult, in the end, we're able to point the glory to Christ when we're the players in the field, not when we're the spectators in the stands.

 

In the first 2 hours of our medical team's work this morning, we've already seen dozens of patients and there was one brother who accepted Christ for the first time today. His name is Eloi and I'd love for all of you to join us in praying for him. He's divorced with a seven-year-old daughter, and after Pastor Carlos presented the Gospel to him and led him to Christ, he challenged Eloi to do three things: 1. Read the Bible every day, 2. Pray about anything and everything, not just the huge problems in life, and 3. Find a church where he can grow and serve. Can we pray for Eloi that he wouldn't just confess Christ with his mouth but that his life will really be changed by God's love and grace?

 

I hope all of you had an awesome weekend. We've still got a long day ahead of us. Our schedule changed a bit and is likely to change again at some point but here's what it looks like right now:

 

11-12 Medical Missions

12-1 Lunch

1-5 VBS (Medical team will be working again from 3-6)

5-6 Dinner

6-7:30 Practice skits and body worships, pray for Celestun

7:30-9:30 Presentations in the town center

 

Please pray for us! We love you guys! God is so good! I'll try to update you all again soon and hopefully send some pictures the next time around.

 

 

 

In Christ's love,

Pastor Chris